Newman makes ‘Hanson’ returns

Luke Newman, manager of F&C Special Situations fund, has benefited from an indicative takeover approach for long standing holding Hanson, one of the UK’s leading suppliers of heavy building materials.

Newman targets companies which are either undergoing a period of structural change, are set to benefit from new management or those companies whose share prices wrongly imply little or no growth prospects.

“The approach made by Germany’s biggest cement maker Heidelberg Cement has seen Hanson’s share price rise by over 25 per cent from £8.40 on 1 May to £10.58 today, vindicating the fund’s strategy of trying to identify alternative valuation methods and support. The fund has tried to identify real assets as well as focusing on the operational aspects of the business,” said Newman.

“Hanson is the owner and operator of prime aggregates businesses in an industry which is consolidating at an increasing rate given the attractions of the long term nature of the underlying assets and the rationale for cost synergies.

“Although there is no guarantee of a formal offer coming from Heidelberg, the tentative approach demonstrates that the fund’s investment approach continues to provide positive outperformance for shareholders,” he concluded.

F&C Special Situations fund has been top decile within the UK All Companies peer group over 3 months, 6 months, year to date and since the fund was launched in January 2006.